Punishment

Félix thought he had lost all his tears by the time they reached factory. He shed silent tears throughout the cab ride, his hair tossed in front of his face to hide both his eyes and his frown from the cab driver. The hand reciprocating Konishi's false affection was all the hint he gave to the world, as though nothing was wrong.

And yet, his eyes found fresh hydration the moment he saw Agnés enter the door. Félix could hardly move already, either fearing Konishi's retaliation or the tightening rope. With her weight on him, there was little he could do other than feebly squirm. He stared wide-eyed at Agnés, trying to scream at her to run away. To get away. To never look back at him. However, with his mouth gagged, all that came out was a struggled muffle.

He thrashed harder under Konishi, but her warning came into effect soon enough. The rope was digging into his skin, and Félix could barely move at all anymore. He whimpered underneath Konishi, tears stinging his eyes as he tried to beg to Agnés to get away. Or for Konishi not to hurt her. In either case, nothing he said came out properly. Just sniffles and muffled cries.

Agnés looked around the scene as she slowly walked towards Félix and Konishi. It struck her that this entire place looked like it should be the set for some crappy b-rate film that broke onto the set. She turned her attention to Konishi. "Who are you?"

When she got the answer from Konishi, Agnés wore an expression of pure confusion, the words simply not making sense to her. "You're what?" Her gaze was jumping between Konishi and Félix. "No, that's not right. There's no way that he's your..." she couldn't even get the words out, they turned sour in her mouth.

As Konishi continued to talk, Agnés could only shake her head, barely even comprehending the words that were being spoken to her. The word 'boyfriend' ringing in her ears, Konishi was clearly insane, that was the only answer to her words and this who scene that was in front of her.

When Félix was kicked forwards Agnés did the best she could to catch him. The heels and clutch she had been carrying clattered to the ground. When she did catch him, she wasn't able to keep him standing, instead he slid down to his knees. She stroke his hair, and whispered into his ear. "Don't worry, everything will be alright."

She turned her full attention back to Konishi. "Yea, of course I know that, but we're in the middle of the city. The largest on all of the islands in the chain."

When Konishi used the word 'killing' Agnés just looked at her dumbfounded. "Please, you've taken this joke too far now. Can we just end it here and we'll all just go home." She didn't get any response for her plea, Konishi was now talking to Félix, it was like Agnes wasn't even there any more.

And then she wasn't. With the flick of Konishi's wrist Agnés' body fell to the floor, soon followed by her freshly severed head, finally her hair that had stretched down to her waist slowly fell over her crumpled body like some demented death vale.

Slowly blood seeped out of her body, forming a pool. As it did, it flowed in strange ways, flowing in streams, searching for something until one of them found her severed head, and the others receded from where they were flowing, only leaving the slightest of traces. After a minute her head had managed to find its way back to her body, leaving not so much as a red mark where Konishi had cut her.

Her body was having flashes of hot and cold. She looked at the hair that was all around her, and touched the back of her head, where she found that her hair had been cut to be much shorter than it had been before. "What's wrong with you? Don't you know that her hair is a girl's pride and joy?" She felt ready to vomit, and wasn't quite sure if it was from the beheading or the shock of her sudden hair cut, no matter how obvious the answer should have been.

Agnés wanted to stand, but no matter how much she told her body to, she just didn't have the strength to yet. Everything felt fuzzy to her.

Félix was entirely obedient to his captor. Despite his sobbing and desperate attempts to tell Agnés to run, Félix didn't do a thing to combat Konishi's control. She had thoroughly broken him a long time ago. Even her kiss had a toxic tantalization which brewed a sickly confusion in his mind. To say he felt miserable was a colossal understatement.

He sat up, then was pulled up to his feet, and he stumbled towards Agnés before nearly collapsing just in front of her. If it weren't for Agnés, he'd have fallen right on his face, likely breaking his nose. He shivered against her, eyes stinging with tears and snot mixing in against her dress. Félix was too scared to do anything for himself. He was too scared to make things worse, to challenge Konishi even when it meant Agnés in the mix. He felt worthless.

Upon Konishi's command, Félix looked up at Agnés. It was, of course, a horrible mistake. His love's head disappeared in the next moment, strands of her hair falling gently onto Félix's face and mixing in with her blood on his white skin. His eyes were certainly open now. That momentary image burned into him the deepest scar, and refused to leave.

The gag was the only thing that kept him from screaming at the top of his lungs. Instead it was just a muffled shrill. His body jerked about in its bindings, trying to release his arms so he could... could... he didn't know what he could do.

Even though he did not forget what Agnés told him, that she could survive cruel horrors, it did not ease his mind. Even as her body pieced itself back together, there was no relief in what he just witnessed. Even as Agnés seemed unperturbed, Félix grieved for her.

Run. God, Agnés, please run. Félix's rope tightened to the point it cut into his wrists. He could barely feel it.

She will torture you. Run away, forget about me. Félix lurched over to Agnés, still on the ground, and feebly tried to cover her from Konishi's sight. It was all he could do to protect her from the only real monster in the room.

As Félix moved his body to shield her from Konishi's attack. She managed to find the strength to move her arm and brush his cheek and give him a gentle smile to tell him that it would be alright, that he didn't need to worry for her so.

When Konishi kicked Agnés couldn't help but call out his name, in worry for his well being. Agnés could feel the spoke of Konishi's heel digging into her sternum. Looking up Konishi, she managed to keep her self calm as she spoke. "There's been no harm, so no foul. We can just end this here and now."

Even as Konishi spoke Agnés manage to keep her gentle smile on, even through the first lancing of her cheek. Agnés wouldn't scream, she couldn't give Konishi the satisfaction. After the sixth sliced her cornea in two she screamed involuntarily. She couldn't tell what was running down the side of her face as Konishi did her sadistic work.

She moved her right hand in a futile attempt to protect her face from Konishi, but that didn't so much as slow her assault for a moment. With her hand that was still intact, she feebly held onto Konishi's leg, in an attempt to get her to stop.

Agnés' hand on his cheek was the only relief he had felt in a long time. He couldn't smile, even if he wasn't gagged, but his ears were treated to a sweet encouragement. He cried, he whimpered, but to see Agnés remain strong was more than he could ask for. He didn't know what would happen. He was scared, but Agnés stayed calm.

Konishi kicked him away, and Félix crumpled away from the girls. He was almost certain Konishi had broken a rib or two, but it was entirely meaningless in the face of her disgusting torture on Agnés. At first, Félix screamed for Agnés. Every spear through her face was a dagger through Félix's heart.

He could hardly think the moment Agnés screamed in kind. Konishi had broken her, Félix thought. She had broken the both of them, and all Félix did was sit here uselessly. He was ashamed, devastated, and terrified. Konishi made him feel worthless and helpless.

But Félix dared to believe he would not let Konishi make Agnés feel as bad. His sense of worthlessness was replaced with rage, the longer she attacked Agnés. Finally, Félix snapped.

The black tentacle was almost obscured in the darkness of the factory. It aimed straight for Konishi's centre of mass, intent on slamming her as hard as Félix could muster and throwing her as far away from Agnés as he could manage. Félix let himself go, tentacle after tentacle slowly erupting from his body and relentlessly and recklessly flailing in Konishi's direction.

When the assault finally ended, all that Agnés could do for a while was take in stuttering breaths of the cool air in the empty factory. She was in a place where she wasn't sure if what she felt was pain any more, everything hurt, but she couldn't figure out just what it was that hurt. The worst of the damage that had been done by Konishi had already vanish, but the lesser marks were still mending themselves, some having barely even started to close.

Slowly she managed to turn herself so she was on her hands an knees, her blood still flowing freely dripping on the concrete floor, then the contents of her stomach followed, spilling out in front of her. The dress she had been wearing was stained red and could hardly be called a dress anymore, seeming likely that it would fall apart should so much as a strong breeze touch her.

She just stayed there, unable to look towards Félix, her gaze fixated on the mixing filth in front of her.

Losing his tendrils to Konishi's swipes was utter agony. He knew this would happen, but still he fought with all his might until she ran away. He and Agnés were alone finally, but it was all too terrible of a moment to be happy. So much for the parfait that evening, when both of them writhed in pain and suffered from their wounds, imaginary and real.

In the midst of his fight, Félix had loosened his bounds enough that he could break free. He pulled out his gag, large breaths gasping for air to fight the sensation of phantom pain. He sobbed, tearing away at the rope around him until it was all thrown to the side. He could hear the drip, more like a pour, of blood from Agnés' body.

“Agnés... Agnés I'm so sorry,” Félix groaned. He didn't know how to help her. The sight of her entrails spilling away was enough to make his mind cloud in a hazy nightmare. He wanted to vomit, or faint, but he couldn't manage either. It was just pain to see.

“Oh my god. Agnés. Lie down. Lie down or... I don't know. Please don't force it out...” He had no idea how to help her. He felt so powerless. His phone was a ways away, and he debated in calling for emergency. But what would that mean if Konishi found out? No... she'd kill them both, or worse. Oh god. What could he do.

“I'm s-so sorry.”